Enchanted Edelweiss nestles in historic building

With a little imagination and a big sense of humor, it’s fun to picture Cape Cod many generations ago, with houses criss-crossing the peninsula and even floating over from Nantucket. Some of those buildings settled in Centerville, where one of them now is a store that sells, among other goods, dolls that might even reach the White House.

FOR ALL THE CHILDREN – Dolls from the Waldorf School tradition come in many colors and their facial features allow for the children who play with them to express all kinds of emotions.

Nancy Snell is “trying to make a difference?

With a little imagination and a big sense of humor, it’s fun to picture Cape Cod many generations ago, with houses criss-crossing the peninsula and even floating over from Nantucket. Some of those buildings settled in Centerville, where one of them now is a store that sells, among other goods, dolls that might even reach the White House.

Nancy Snell, owner of the Edelweiss store on South Main Street, thinks that the building came from Marstons Mills, maybe from the corner of River and Bay streets. She said that she would like to hear from anyone who has information about it.

Snell and her family moved here from Connecticut in 1990 when her husband took a job in this state. They chose to live on Cape Cod because of the Waldorf education that was available to their children.

Waldorf pedagogy uses storytelling and arts to teach its students, who learn to write with fountain pens. “They have no clocks or textbooks, and the children go outside three times a day no matter what the weather,” said Snell in the presence of her daughter Emily, who is now a senior at Sturgis Charter Public School.

Nancy Snell ran the Waldorf school store in Bourne as a volunteer – “a 35-hour a week job” – and loved the art supplies that fuel the curriculum. “Everything is thought through,” she said. “For instance, there are three-sided pencils to teach proper grip.”

For a living, Snell tried the bed-and-breakfast business for a year, but “it nearly killed me,” she said, “so this” –meaning the store – “is Plan B.”

Snell explained that the kind of merchandise she offers “is my way of trying to make a difference. Nothing here is made in China, or of plastic, or makes noise.” She sells Greek toothbrushes, French soap (“they know what they’re doing”), Swedish clogs, and “real Shaker herbs from Sabbathday Lake, Maine.”

Edelweiss also carries baskets made down-Cape in Orleans and “Good Dog Soap” from Barnstable Village. Dishtowels come from what Snell called “the oldest family-run mill in the world, in business since 1692.”

She also sells “Peace Fleece,” little knitting kits, skeins, and needles, which combine American wool with that of sheep from countries with which we have fought wars.

Snell’s sister works for the National Park Service, which oversees the White House, and so she hopes to make a connection to send the Obama girls two “dolls of color” which, in Waldorf tradition, have only minimal facial expressions so that a child can identify with them in any kind of mood.

Snell’s property also includes a barn that was moved from land that now belongs to former town councilor Roy Richardson. It, the Edelweiss building, and a residential wing all have joined the main house in some of those many moves for which antique Cape Cod edifices are famous.

Why a business in Centerville, now?

“I’m trying to make a difference,” said Snell. “I’m not here for tourists, but for locals, the year-rounders. I don’t want to be part of consumerism. I hope that everything I sell is made by someone who is fairly paid and who liked what they were making. I’m tired of the throw-away society, and what I sell will last for years and years and years.”

Edelweiss was built in 1795, said Snell. Yet as she spoke of its age, she discovered a newcomer among its beams.